As Nike says, Just do it.
Forming habits is difficult, especially when you don’t have the time nor motivation. A lot of people’s advice is to just do it, that there is never a right time to start, so stop waiting for the right moment.
Even though that is true, there is still some science to this. Don’t just do it. If you just push yourself to do something, there’s no guarantee it will become a habit. Instead, find ways to “hijack the system” and optimize the habit so it sticks. Do it in a way where you can enjoy it in the long run instead of dreading it.
Here are some creative ways to enforce different habits in your life:
1. Working Out
I’m sure this is a huge one for a lot of people. Especially with COVID-19 and virtual learning and working, we’re not getting much movement aside from walking to the bathroom and back to our study space. I am by no means perfect in this department. I haven’t been working out much ever since college started and it’s still a struggle, but I’m trying.
The first step to this is setting up a goal. How many times a week do you want to work out? Now, this may seem like just a small step, but it can influence if your habit sticks or breaks. If you are not a regular exercise person, even if you are determined and motivated, don’t set unrealistic goals. If you’re like me, an aspiring exercise person who doesn’t really have time to work out, start small.
I started out this semester by telling myself to go out for a run once a week. The pressure was small and I was able to get through it. Of course, there are weeks where I couldn’t find the time (and who am I kidding, this includes motivation as well) to hit my super small goal, but that’s okay. Don’t let that affect you in the long run. Forget about those failure weeks and just keep looking forward.
Eventually, as of a few weeks ago, I increased my goal to running twice a week. And to my surprise, I’ve actually been keeping up with that and I’m very proud of myself. Small goals help. I remember setting goals in the summer that were attainable but weren’t sustainable at all. I told myself to work out 4-5 times a week and I thought that was reachable since it was the summer and I had more free time. It lasted for about 3 weeks. It was great while it lasted, but because I wasn’t a regular workout person prior, it was hard to sustain that goal. Now that I’m starting over and starting small, I am confident that this is the better way to approach this and sustain it as a habit.
A tool to help keep track and motivate yourself to reach your workout goal is the Seinfeld method. It’s essentially having a calendar page of the month and putting a huge X on the date where you completed that activity you want to become a habit. Hang it up on your wall where you can see it often. The satisfaction of crossing off the boxes creates an incentive for you to sustain that habit and keep up your good work. And again, if you lose momentum in the middle and didn’t complete the activity, it’s all good! Let that go and continue with the habit and don’t let the future boxes be empty.
The timing is also important. To make exercising a habit, first, you have to allow yourself to experiment and know yourself. Try working out in the morning, before lunchtime, mid-afternoon, before dinner time, any time you can think of! See what works for you. What workout time is the most efficient for your day? For some people, working out in the morning energizes them and motivates them to take on the day and focus on school/work afterward. For some people, working out in the morning completely throws them off track and they find it hard to focus on being productive afterward so they prefer running before dinner time after they are done with a day of work or school. Experiment and find your rhythm. Once you find something that works, stick to it. And don’t be afraid to change it after a while! Sometimes your preference may change and it’s okay and healthy to change your routine every once in a while.
Another tip to working out is music. A lot of the time, for beginners, stamina is the difficult part. Since I don’t exercise regularly, I don’t have the best stamina and it can be discouraging when you get so tired just a short while after you started your workout. A good way is to use songs to divide up your workout and serve as motivation. For example, if you’re running, set a goal to run without stopping throughout one song and then walk for one song, and run nonstop through another. This is a good way for beginner runners to ease into running. Over time, once you build up stamina, you can create longer goals, maybe running nonstop for 3 songs and stopping for one.
Related: How to Motivate Yourself to Work Out in the Morning
2. Flossing
This is a habit not a lot of people talk about but is something that many people want to get in the habit of, especially after a dentist appointment. This is definitely difficult to enforce since there aren’t any immediate benefits that motivate you. A tip that I learned is to floss immediately after dinner instead of planning to do it right before bedtime after you brush your teeth. Even though it feels natural to floss after you brush your teeth before bed, you don’t have to follow that unwritten “rule”! Oftentimes, even if we really want to floss, our exhaustion and anticipation for bedtime will turn off the rational part of our brain and we end up just telling ourselves that we would floss the next day (but we all know that didn’t happen.) So, as mentioned earlier with exercising, timing is everything.
3. Getting up early
Waking up early has many benefits and many of us are constantly trying to form a better sleep schedule in order to wake up early, enjoy some quiet time in the morning and proceed to be productive and get things done early in the day. However, this is definitely not an easy task. I used to wake up at around 9 (or even earlier) on a regular basis before COVID-19 and COVID-19 honestly ruined my sleep schedule, and I’m sure many of you feel the same way. I was feeling unmotivated all the time and didn’t see a point in anything. I fell into a dark hole and just didn’t care about anything. I had trouble waking up and getting out of bed even if I went to sleep early the previous night. But I learned that it’s totally okay to be out of your funk for a while, especially with a pandemic going on. There is nothing to feel guilty about.
Now with the semester going on, I’ve been thrown back into a routine and it’s nice. I’ve been better at getting out of bed earlier than I did in the summer. I still have trouble doing it but I’m working through it.
A tip that I’ve learned is to create something to look forward to in the morning after getting out of bed. Don’t let school/work be the reason you have to get out of bed. That will just make you feel miserable. Instead, the night before, make a plan on what you can do for fun in the morning if you wake up 30 minutes or an hour before your class, for instance. Whether it’s sipping a hot drink on your balcony with a good book, cozy blanket and fresh air, taking the extra time to make yourself a tasty and energizing breakfast, or simply just spending some time watching your favorite TV show to get your mood up before starting a day of school or work.
Having something to look forward to makes it easier to get out of bed in the morning. Otherwise, you’ll be lying in bed until the very last minute before you absolutely have to get up for class or a meeting.
If it’s not working out for you still, try doing your morning routine on your bed first! If you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning like me, try doing the activity you look forward to in bed. After you wake up, you can simply sit up and read your book or watch your favorite show for 20-30 minutes, slowly wake your mind up and ease yourself to get out of bed. This will also put you in a better mood when you eventually get out of bed.
And of course, the most important tip — if you want to get up early in the morning, have a nice night routine and go to sleep early the night before.
Related: 7 Tips to Wake Up Early
4. Journaling
With the pandemic going on, mental health has become one of the main focuses of many people. A great way to take care of your mental health is through journaling. Journaling is a wonderful way to express yourself and reflect and has many benefits. However, like exercising, it can be hard to get into if you haven’t had the habit of journaling frequently.
A great way is to start with prompts. Look for prompt journals or even just looking for prompts online and have those as your starting point. With prompts and guiding questions, it becomes easier as you won’t be staring at your blank page stressing what to write about. A good example of prompt journals is the 52 lists series! There are 52 lists for Happiness, 52 lists for Calm, 52 lists for bravery, and more. Timing is also important for journaling. It is common to see different lifestyle bloggers journal in the morning, but the truth is, that is not a rule! Some people might find it hard to journal in the morning since nothing has really happened yet and you don’t really have a lot of thoughts and emotions while some people find it refreshing to journal in the morning. Try journaling at different times, in the morning and before bedtime and see what works better for you.
5. Reading
With college, work and life in the way, many of us readers might not find the time and motivation to read as much as they’d like. I’m a book lover and if you ask me when’s the last time I finished a book, it’s probably been one or two years, sadly. With our lives being at home now, I’m determined to make reading a more consistent habit. A great tip I learned from a booktuber is to read during procrastination time.
We all procrastinate, and whenever we know we have to start working on an assignment, we just aimlessly scroll through social media platforms and watch endless YouTube videos and tell ourselves we’ll get working on the assignment in 5 minutes, but the 5 minutes eventually turns into one or two hours, leaving us feeling bad about ourselves about wasting time. If you know you’re going to procrastinate, embrace it! Use that procrastination time to your advantage and read a book!
Instead of aimlessly scrolling through social media, you’d have read a few chapters of a book and feel good about yourself, and you might even feel refreshed and motivated to work on your assignment after a good reading session. I’ve been trying this trick lately and it got me back into reading after a long reading slump and it even motivated me to read before bed as well since the procrastination reading turned my reading back into a habit.
These tips are just a few examples that I’ve implemented in my life to enforce some habits. Everybody functions and reacts differently and if something doesn’t work for you, find new ways! Don’t feel bad! Move past it and look forward to new ways.
Collegiettes, I hope you all get to find your rhythm and are able to implement these healthy habits into your routine!